Yesterday is History
by Deliwiel
Summary: We know a little bit about Riley's background, like the fact that Jack was like her father, and that she spent two years in prison before DXS came to get her, but what are the details surrounding those events?


_**Hey! So the other day I was listening to 'Neverland' by Zendaya because I love that song, and I started thinking about Riley and her backstory. We know the bare backbone of it, but I kinda wanted to write what I thought might have happened before she joined at Phoenix...It's only got two segments of her life, but if people want more, I could probably write more; if you like it as a one-shot though, I'm fine leaving it like this too :)**_

 _ **Let me know if you think anything needs improvement, because some of these sentences felt really rough to me.**_

Riley sat on her floor with her her headphones on, listening to music as she worked on her computer. She, her mom, and Jack had already eaten dinner, and now the two adults were downstairs watching a movie while she was in her bedroom working on homework. Well, she _had_ been working on homework. At the moment she was typing furiously on her computer, practicing her programming skills. There was a competition for computer programming coming up, and Riley was excited to show Jack and her mom what she'd been working on for it. However, as she typed away on her keyboard with her music playing loudly in her ears, she felt the floor vibrate the way it did when the front door opened.

The young woman frowned; as far as she knew, they weren't expecting anyone else over for the night. She took her headphones off right as the front door slammed shut, and she knew something was wrong. Quietly, she got to her feet and walked on tiptoes over to her bedroom door, which was open just a crack. She began pulling it open, but the voice she heard from downstairs stopped her.

"Diane!" the slurred voice yelled. "Diane, I knowyou're here, you an'your...boyfriend!"

Riley stiffened as she recognized her father's voice. It wasn't just his regular voice, either. Riley could tell that her father had been drinking, and drinking a lot. The way his voice rose in pitch, the way his words sort of mashed themselves together...her father was hammered. Shaking herself out of her frozen state, Riley pulled her door open the rest of the way and crept towards the stairs, grateful that her socked feet made her sneak along even more quietly.

"Hold on," Riley heard her mom say quietly, more than likely telling Jack to stay where he was while she tried to deal with her ex-husband.

"Di, I really don't think that's a good idea," Jack replied, concern in his voice.

"Jack, stay here." Diane's voice was firm, and Riley knew that Jack usually listened when she spoke in that kind of voice.

"Fine." Jack didn't sound happy about it, but he agreed to stay put. "I'm standing right here though, and if anything happens, I'm coming in."

Diane didn't respond, and Riley snuck over to the banister, peering through the poles at her father standing in their doorway.

"Di'ne!" he roared again.

"Elwood," Diane said as she came out of the living room. Riley had only seen her mother look that angry a few times, and she smirked as she thought about her dad, who was about to get more than he bargained for. "You need to leave," Diane ordered firmly.

"Yeah...yeah'ight," Elwood responded, stumbling forward slightly towards his ex wife. "Where's Riley? It's my turn to take...take R'ley home f-fur the week'nd." The drunk man began stumbling for the stairs as he started calling out his daughter's name. "Riley!" he yelled. "Riley, come down 'ere...c'me down 'ere now!"

"Elwood, I don't know what you're talking about, but the courts ruled that you have no parental control over Riley, at least not while you've got this problem," Diane interrupted, stepping in front of her ex to prevent him from going up the stairs, even though she didn't think he'd be able to make it up even three steps without crashing on his face.

"Get'outta my f'ce, Diane," Elwood snapped.

"No." Diane stood her ground, and when Elwood made to go up the stairs again, Diane pushed him back, refusing to let him upstairs at their daughter.

Without even pausing a moment, Elwood let out a yell and grabbed Diane by her shirt, flinging her out of the way. Riley's mother smashed into the wall and slumped down to the floor, looking dazed. The fourteen-year-old let out a small gasp as she watched her mother get tossed aside like a rag doll, but her surprised noise was lost in the loud yelling of her father. Elwood was moving towards Diane again, but before he could get anywhere close to her, Jack Dalton let out his own yell of rage and bowled into the drunken man.

Elwood let out a surprised "Oof" as Jack knocked him over, but quicker than Riley expected, her father was back on his feet taking a swing at Jack, who ducked the drunken punch easily. Elwood moved forward, trying to hit Jack again and again, but the other man simply ducked and dodged each hit sent his way, until he finally threw one of his own punches.

Jack's fist made contact with Elwood's nose, and the drunken man staggered back in surprise, touching just above his upper lip where blood was coming out his nose. He roared again and attacked Jack; Riley's eyes were wide as she watched the two grown men fight, and she flinched a little every time one of Elwood's fists would get close to landing on Jack's body.

For a moment, Riley wondered where Jack had learned to fight like that while selling bathroom tile, but she couldn't stay on that train of thought for long; Jack made the mistake of throwing one look back at Diane who was getting to her feet, and while he was distracted, Elwood roared again and wrapped his arms around Jack's torso, pinning the other man's arms to his side. Jack struggled in the grip for a moment, but then he threw his head back into Elwood's face, and Riley heard a distinct _CRACK._ Elwood yelled in pain and released Jack, backing away as he clutched at his now-broken nose, which was pouring blood.

"Elwood, you need to leave," Jack said, not even sounding winded even though he'd been fighting for the past few minutes, and had just had his lungs squeezed by Elwood, who, from what Riley could remember, was a very strong man.

"I'll leave w'n I get...my dau'ter," Elwood slurred. Jack shook his head as the man tried to move forward again. With a sigh, Jack balled his fist and gave Elwood the hardest left hook Riley had ever seen, and she watched as her father dropped to the floor.

Throughout the fight, Riley had slowly stood up, and by the time Elwood crumpled to the floor, the teenager was standing with her hands on the bannister, staring down at the adults with wide eyes. Jack helped Diane to her feet and the two of them watched Elwood as he began to stir. The drunken man opened up his eyes and saw Jack and Diane standing over him.

"Elwood," Jack said, stepping in front of Diane as her drunken ex began to get to his feet. "You're going to leave this house, and you're not going to bother Diane or Riley again. Hey," Jack said, putting his hand on Elwood's shoulder to stop the man from moving forward. "Did you hear me?"

"Get yur hand off me," Elwood grumped, pushing Jack's hand away from him. The drunken man stood there sullenly, until he brought his fist around and tried once again to clock Jack in the face. Jack saw it coming though, and he easily avoided the punch, following swiftly with his own uppercut. Elwood was thrown backwards into the door, slamming into it hard enough to shake the frame. For a moment, Riley thought that her father was unconscious, but he got up again, though this time he didn't make a move forward. He simply glared at Jack and Diane for a few seconds before he turned and opened the door. He stormed outside and slammed it shut behind him, and the house was left in an almost-uneasy silence. Riley moved towards the stairs, trying to be quiet about it, but one of the floorboards creaked under her weight.

Jack and Diane both whirled around at the sound, and when they saw the teenager standing at the top of the stairs, they both moved towards her.

"Riley," Diane said as she hurried up the stairs, embracing her daughter in a huge hug. Riley returned the hug, but she kept staring at Jack, unsure of what to say. "Riley, honey, let's go to bed," Diane continued as she shepherded her daughter back to her room, where Riley's headphones and laptop lay on the floor, practically forgotten. "You stay in here, okay?" Diane continued as she and Riley entered the bedroom.

The curly-haired girl just nodded mutely, still slightly in shock, but she didn't say anything when her mother left, promising her daughter that everything would be okay. Diane left, and Riley waited until she heard her mother going down the stairs before she crept back to her door. Diane had shut the bedroom door when she left, and Riley didn't want to risk opening the door and having her mother hear her come out again, so she just pressed her ear against the door as hard as she could. The best she could hear were muffled voices though, nothing distinct.

As Riley tried to figure out how she could hear what was going on downstairs, she got an idea and she hurried over to her laptop. It took it a minute to wake up, seeing as how she'd left it idling for so long and it was running low on battery, but it only took the teenager a few seconds to give herself access to her mom's security system, which included a camera above the door. Picking up her headphones and pausing the music currently playing, Riley slipped her headphones on and pressed 'unmute.'

"-Don't have to leave," Diane said, almost as if she were pleading with Jack. Riley's heart froze in her chest and she waited with baited breath as she watched Jack for his reply.

"I can't stay here, Di," the man replied, holding out his arms helplessly.

"Can we at least talk about this in the morning?" Diane asked, hoping to get Jack to stay through the night so she could convince him to stay.

"Diane," Jack began, but Riley's mother placed a finger on his lips.

"Come on," she said, almost pleadingly. "Let's talk about this tomorrow."

Jack began to protest, but Diane simply took his hands and led him down the hallway and out of sight of the camera Riley was using. The teenager couldn't believe it; why was Jack wanting to leave? Was he sick of taking care of her and her mom? Had Elwood ruined _that_ relationship for the two girls as well? Riley took in a deep breath; her mom would convince Jack to stay. She had to.

Deciding to forget about her father, her mother, Jack, and her programming project for the night, Riley turned her computer off and climbed into bed. She tossed and turned for about an hour before she finally fell asleep. She was trying to keep Jack out of her thoughts, but she couldn't help but wonder what she had done to make Jack want to leave her.

 _0-0-0_

The next morning, Riley walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where she saw her mom sitting at the table, her back to her daughter.

"Mom?"

Diane turned around, and Riley saw that her mother's eyes were red, and she had tear streaks down her face. Instantly, Riley knew what had happened, and she stared at her mother with a shocked expression.

"Come here, baby," Diane said, holding her arms open to her teenage daughter. Riley numbly stepped forward into her mother's embrace, and the two of them sat there in the kitchen, not quite sure what to do about everything they'd lost.

Riley's mom tried to convince her that Jack had left because he thought it was what was best for them, but it didn't matter to the teenager. She'd put her trust in Jack, she'd seen him as her father, and he'd turned his back on them. Just like Elwood.

 _0-0-0_

 _Six Years Later_

"Mom, are you okay?" Riley asked, her voice tight with apprehension. Diane nodded shortly, not wanting to agitate the men holding a gun to her head.

"Enough of this," one of the men said, using a digitizer to mask his voice. "Artemis, can you get us what we want, or do we need to make this your last call to your mother?"

"Yes," Riley replied without hesitation. "I can do it. I just need a bit of time."

"Better get on it," the man replied. "Mommy dearest only has a few more hours before the deadline."

Riley nodded, hiding her triumphant look as her program finally pinged the location where they were holding her mother. "I'm going," she assured them. The video call was ended, but Riley had already gotten the information she needed. The police were going to get an anonymous tip about a known criminal who was armed and dangerous at that particular address. She just had to do a few more things before she could send the alert…

 _0-0-0_

"Stop what you're doing! Hands in the air!" The door behind Riley was forcefully kicked open, just like the hacker had expected. She'd traced the cop cars once they'd been dispatched, and as soon as they were about a minute away from her location, she'd sent the "anonymous tip," knowing that officers would be dispatched to her mother's location right away. Her mother would be found and taken safely in before the men who kidnapped her could figure out that Riley had failed.

"Step away from the computer," the man in charge said. Riley did as she was told, and one of the officers grabbed her hands and pulled her arms behind her back. Cold metal cuffs were cinched around her wrists and Riley was led out to the waiting car outside.

 _0-0-0_

 _Two Years Later_

All the inmates were yelling and forming a circle as two women grappled with each other on the floor. One of those women was Riley Davis, who'd managed to make another woman angry. Again. Her sass and unwillingness to back down when someone threatened her made her easy prey for a fight, which these women were always happy to watch and participate in. The young hacker hadn't had much experience fighting, but while she'd been in prison, she'd picked up a thing or two. The only problem was that the woman she was currently facing, Roxie, was in prison for strangling her husband after catching him with another woman, and she was currently trying to demonstrate those skills again.

Roxie got behind Riley and wrapped her arm around the younger woman's neck, but Riley only struggled in her grasp for a few minutes before reaching up behind her and grabbing Roxie's hair, pulling hard. Roxie yelled in pain and released Riley, who turned and delivered a left hook to her attacker's face, knocking Roxie to the ground. All the women surrounding the two of them yelled and urged the fight on, but before Roxie could get up and retaliate, a shrill whistle sounded and guards suddenly appeared. They began breaking through the crowds and pulling the women away from the fight; finally they got through to Riley and Roxie.

"Break it up!" the warden yelled as she made her way through the crowd as well. One guard held Roxie while another grabbed Riley, though the hacker tried to pull her arm away. "Ms. Davis," the warden said disapprovingly as she observed the scene. "You were doing so well."

"I'm surprised the warden came down for a simple fight," Riley panted, not meaning to sound completely as upstart as she did. The warden's mouth tightened into a line, and for a moment Riley wondered what her punishment was going to be, but the warden simply shook her head.

"I wouldn't; that's not why I'm here. You've got some visitors, though I'm not sure if you should get the chance to see them now," she added, giving the hacker a critical once-over. Riley was confused; she didn't have anyone she cared about on the outside except her mom, and she'd promised never to come see Riley unless it was an emergency, though Diane really didn't like the agreement. The announcement that she had a guest made Riley wonder if something had happened to her mother, and she began to panic slightly, though she didn't show it. She focused back on the warden as the woman continued talking. "The only reason you're being allowed to see them is because they've got some sort of high government clearance, and they say it's a matter of national security."

That made Riley even more confused. Who on earth could be here to talk to her, and what would they want with the girl who hacked the NSA? She'd made a full confession to hacking the NSA, landing her five years in prison. It would have been more, but with her confession, paired with the fact that she was "young and could be taught," she only got five years. Something wasn't adding up, but the hacker didn't say anything as she was escorted by the guards through the hallway to one of the rooms. When she entered though, she stopped dead. In one of the chairs across from where she was supposed to sit, there was a young man with blond hair; next to him though, was a man she never thought she'd see again.

"Hey Riley," Jack Dalton greeted. "It's been a while."

 _ **Aaaand the rest is history! So...did it make sense? Did you guys like it?**_

 _ **Also, for those of you reading my multi-chapter story, I'm sorry about that cliffhanger...I mean, not really, it's me, you shoulda known one was coming, but I'm sorry if it caused you distress XD**_


End file.
